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  • Nameless and formless

    Nameless and formless,
    I leave birth-and-death.
    – Layman P’ang (740 – 808)

  • No man is an island

    Encrusted island

    All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated.

    As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.

    No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

    – John Donne (1572-1631)
    Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII

  • only the heart can see rightly


    It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential
    is invisible to the eye.
    – Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)

  • Jewels

    If I should see your eyes again,
    I know how far their look would go —
    Back to a morning in the park
    With sapphire shadows on the snow.

    Or back to oak trees in the spring
    When you unloosed my hair and kissed
    The head that lay against your knees
    In the leaf shadow’s amethyst.

    And still another shining place
    We would remember — how the dun
    Wild mountain held us on its crest
    One diamond morning white with sun.

    But I will turn my eyes from you
    As women turn to put away
    The jewels they have worn at night
    And cannot wear in sober day.”

    – Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

  • always zen

    Zen students are with their masters at least ten years before they presume to teach others. Nan-in was visited by Tenno, who, having passed his apprenticeship, had become a teacher. The day happened to be rainy, so Tenno wore wooden clogs and carried an umbrella. After greeting him Nan-in remarked: “I suppose you left your wodden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella is on the right or left side of the clogs.”

    Tenno, confused, had no instant answer. He realized that he was unable to carry his Zen every minute. He became Nan-in’s pupil, and he studied six more years to accomplish his every-minute Zen.

    ( found at ashidakim.com )

  • quickly life

    The sound of a swollen
    Mountain stream rapidly rushing
    Makes one know
    How very quickly life itself
    Is pressed along its course.
    – Saigyo (1118-1190)

  • Examine your mind

    Examine your mind to see it as not being inside, not being outside, and not being in between.

    Observe it calmly, carefully, and objectively; when you master this, you will clearly see that the mind’s consciousness moves in a flow, like a current of water, like heat waves rising endlessly.

    – Hongren (602-675)

  • forceps of our minds

    Water Under Water – The Thrill

    “The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.”

    – H. G. Wells

  • a master of stillness

    To return to your original state of being,
    You must become a master of stillness.

    Turn the mind in upon itself
    And contemplate the inner radiance.

  • one crowded hour

    One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honor or observation.

    – Sir Walter Scott.